5,405 stars · MIT · v1.3.1 (2026-06-14) · Track this in Scout
A modern replacement for the watch command that keeps every past run, so you can scroll back through what changed and when.
▶Repo detailsthe review · specs · pros & cons · install
What it is
viddy is a modern replacement for the classic Unix watch command, written in Go and shipped as a single file. It adds difference highlighting, a time machine that stores past results, a proper pager for long output, and the ability to save a session.
What it is good for. Anyone who watches things finish: a deployment, a queue draining, a file copying, a certificate renewing, a container coming up. The difference from watch is the time machine. When something goes wrong at 14:32, watch has already thrown away 14:31, and viddy has not.
- One file, no dependencies, and it starts instantly.
- The time machine is the feature nobody knew they wanted. Scrolling back through past runs turns "it broke at some point" into a timestamp.
- MIT licensed, and release v1.3.1 is dated 14 June 2026 with code landing on 16 August 2026.
- Terminal only. There is nothing to look at on a phone or in a browser.
- Storing every past run costs memory. A command producing large output every second, left running all day, will grow.
- It watches and reports. It cannot act on what it sees, so it is a pair of eyes and not a monitoring system.
- watchexec/watchexec
Runs a command when files change rather than on a timer, which suits development loops instead of watching.
Track this in Scout - eradman/entr
The same file-change idea in a very small, very old and very reliable C program.
Track this in Scout
brew install viddy viddy -n 2 kubectl get pods
